To save a life
by Wildchildonfire
Summary: When Darren finds a little girl he never could have imagined how much she would matter to him. Starts after book one will continue over all books after that. With periods differing from the story line. Rated T for language and violence in later chapters.
1. Chapter 1

**I am new at this please review sorry about the short chapter. I updated this it had a lot of mistakes thanks to Samansa-chan147 for pointing the biggest one out.**

**I do not own DSS/CDF**

(Darrens POV) It had been 3 months since Mr. Crepsley blooded me. I was handing out fliers for the Cirque du freak when I came to an alley. I saw a little girl laying on the ground crying. I went up to her to see what was wrong she looked up at me and I knew that the pain in her eyes could only come from the loss of a someone you cared about. She looked at me and screamed it took a couple of seconds to calm her down.

"Whats wrong?" I asked.

"Yo...you're not going to hurt me?" she asked.

I laughed and helped her up "I won't hurt you," I told her.

"Where do you live?" I asked.

"I live here." she replied.

"Do you want to come live with me and my family?"

" Where do you live?" She asked me.

" I live at a magical place called the Cirque du freak with lots of people amazing magical people." I told her.

"Are you magical?" she asked

"In ways I am," I told her.

"What can you do?" she asked.

" I will show you everything I can do but first I want to know will you come live at the cirque?" I asked.

"I would love to come live with you this place is scary at night I hear things and sometimes drunk men throw their beer cans at me." She said starting to cry again.

" Its alright we can leave now if you would like to," I told her.

She grabbed my hand and I started to lead her back to the cirque.

"How old are you?" I asked

"I am 8 and a half," she told me.

"I'm Darren, what is your name?" I asked her

" I'm Veronica.," she said

"That's a nice name," I told her.

I took her to see Mr. Tall when we got back.

"You can sit down over there," I told Veronica.

"I found her in an alley she's homeless can she stay here?" I asked Mr Tall.

"Of course she can as long as she is willing to help out,"

"I am just please don't send me back to that alley," Veronica said.

"Alright you can stay in Darren and Evras tent for now." Mr Tall told her.

"Lets go I will introduce you to Evra he is a little different but i'm sure you will like him," I told her.

We started walking when I noticed how skinny she was.

"Follow me," I told her

We went and sat down around the bon fire with the rest of the performers.

"I'm Rhamus twobellies," said a jolly big guy.

"Hello," Veronica said shyly.

More performers came and said hello. Finally I asked them to leave her alone and let her eat when she was done I picked her up and carried her to our tent.

"Tomorrow I will introduce you to Evra and my master Mr. Crepsley." I said.

Veronica yawned and fell asleep on the way to the tent. When we got there I laid her in her on my hammock. Note to self pick up another hammock I thought as I got up and headed to Mr Crepsley's van.**  
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**Thanks for reading please review.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Sorry for the wait on this chapter but its a bit longer then the first chapter and a lot less mistakes thanks to my great Beta LililolipopD. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own DSS/CDF I only own the characters I put in the story.**

Darren's P.O.V

After Veronica fell asleep I went to see if Mr Crepsley was awake, it turns out he was fast asleep so I made him breakfast for when he woke up.

It was still weird cooking breakfast at nine o'clock. Mr Crepsley woke up as I was finishing, he sat down and took his plate of bacon and eggs, he popped open a vial of blood and poured it in a mug. He offered me some but I declined, I wasn't going to drink blood, it was wrong.

I felt if I drank blood then I would be giving up my last shred of humanity, I just wasn't ready.

I let Mr Crepsley finish his meal before I told him about Veronica.

"Mr Crepsley?" I asked, clasping my hands together in a death grip.

He didn't even look up. "What is it now Darren?" He sighed as if I was a somebody not worth his precious time.

"I met this girl and she was homeless so I brought her back here and-" He cut me off.

"And you want me to look after her? Ok only if she becomes my assistant too." He said, biting his nails.

"NO!" I yelled immediately. "I will not let you turn her into one of us!" I glared at him.

"Darren it was a mistake blooding you so young and I am not about to make the same mistake with her. I will teach her our ways and will not blood her for some years. Not until she chooses this life for herself." I saw sorrow in his eyes for a mili-second but it was replaced by childish glee.

"Now enough of this depressing talk, you and I have some training to get on with." And with that he sent me on a five mile run to get warmed up.

When I got back I hadn't even broken a sweat, he sent me on a series of intense work-outs, then we did hand-to-hand combat for two hours and finally we had our two hour lesson of Vampire history. Mr Crepsley dismissed me at about three in the morning to get some sleep.

I went into our tent feeling exausted and was met with a surprise, Veronica was crying and Evra was trying to get her to calm down, but whenever he tried to get close she cried even harder.

I ran over to her and held her in my arms. "Hush now, it will be Ok." I whispered in her ear, but with no luck, she just kept crying and about an hour later she fell asleep in my arms. I looked to Evra for an explination.

"My Snake jumped her and almost bit her but I prised him off of her. I tried to go over and comfort her but she kept cowering away from me." He explained in one breath.

"I'll talk to her tomorrow." I told him as I laid Veronica in her hammock.

I woke up to Veronica shaking my arm. "What's wrong?" I asked.

"I have to go to the loo." She said. I got up, grabbed her hand and showed her the way to the bathroom.

"I'll be right here if you need me." I told her. She came out a few minutes later and told me she was ready for what she had to do for the day.

"Lets go find Truska to see if she has anything for you to wear." She grabbed my hand and we set off to find Truska. We found Truska a few minutes later by the fire cooking sausages.

"Do you have anything Veronica can wear Truska?" I asked her, not sure she would understand, but she gave me a thumbs up, handed me the rest of the sausages and grabbed Veronica's hand. Veronica looked at me and I gave her a thumbs up, she smiled back and followed Truska to her van.

I finished cooking the sausages and chewed one while I was waiting for Truska and Veronica. When they finally came back I asked Veronica the almighty question.

"Do you believe in Vampires." I asked, not daring to look her in the eye.

"Well after seeing the people in the Cirque, I would believe in anything." She said, I looked at her.

"Well good thing I'm a Vampire." I smiled at her.

"Really?" She asked. I nodded and went on to explain the difference between a real Vampire and the Vampire's of legend. She listened until I was done.

"Veronica? Would you like to meet my master?" She nodded and I took her to his van.

We went inside and I banged on the lid of his coffin, Veronica looked scared so I gave her a warm smile.

Mr Crepsley opened the lid of his coffin and sat up with his eyes still closed. "What is it Darren?" He opened his eyes, but barely glanced at Veronica.

"This is the girl I was talking about last night." I said motioning to Veronica. He gave her a sleepy glance and got out of his coffin.

"Hello." He said, extending his hand for her to shake and she shook it. About an hour later he told me to leave. I knew not to argue with him so I got up and left.

Veronica's P.O.V

When Darren left I got a little bit scared, but I knew if Darren trusted this man, I could too.

He asked me what Darren told me about Vampires and I told him that Holy water wouldn't affect them and the same with garlic and salt water, but a well placed stake would kill him but so would a well placed bullet or a knife. I told him that a full Vampire couldn't be out in the sun for more than a few hours and that they aged a tenth the rate of a human, but Half-Vampires could go out in the sun all they wanted and only aged a fifth the rate of a human.

"Good, Darren taught you a lot today, but now I must ask you a question," He paused. "Are you willing to become my assistant like Darren? You would train with Darren, but I would not blood you for a number of years."

"I'd like to become your assistant, but what would I actually do?" I asked him.

"You wouldn't really do much, you will learn to hunt and cook for when we are on the road, you would learn the ways of the Vampire and workout everyday with Darren, you would not have to do the harder things like Darren does but you will have to put as much effort as he does." He finished and I thought it over for a few minutes.

"I'll do it." I said, standing up.

"Great, now if you please there is two hours left to night fall and I would like to sleep." He said rubbing his temples and yawning.

I left the van and ran into Darren, Evra and a kid who was maybe a year or two older than me, but was at least five years younger than Darren and Evra.

I was still a little scared of Evra so I took a step back. Darren saw this.

"Veronica, Evra's a good guy, I'm sorry about last night but you need to at least give him a chance. He was the first person who actually became my friend here." He looked at me hopefully.

"Okay," I mumbled. " I'm sorry Evra, it's just your snake scared me so much." I looked at him.

"It's okay. He usually likes new people, we milked the venom out of him and he was a bit cranky." He said scratching the back of his neck.

"It's Okay." I replied, smiling. "And who are you?" I asked the other kid.

"I'm Sam Grest, pleased to meetcha." He replied, popping a pickled onion in his mouth. "I have to leave now though, see ya." And he ran off. Darren asked me what Mr Crepsley said to me while he was gone.

"He asked me if I would like to be his assistant and I said yes." He nodded like he expected that to happen.

"Come on lets go eat, were starting our training in a couple of hours." He said with a mischievous smile and ran off with Evra, and me trailing behind.


	3. Chapter 3

**Sorry for the long wait but its over now thanks to my great Beta LililolipopD go check out her stories. Also thanks to Samansa-chan147 for reviewing and thanks for the advise sorry for not thanking you last chapter. **

**Disclaimer:****I do NOT own DSS/CDF that is owned by the great author Darren Shan **

Veronica's P.O.V

When Darren and I went to Mr Crepsley's van, he was still asleep so Darren started talking me through what Mr Crepsley likes to eat when he wakes up, he pulled out the eggs and asked if I knew how to cook.

"No." I answered truthfully.

"Thats alright I'll teach you its not that hard." He told me and showed me how to make scrambled eggs for a few minutes and then he pulled out the bacon.

"He doesn't always eat eggs and bacon but I haven't gone to the shops yet so he'll have to live with them." Darren said as he pulled out a plate for Mr Crepsley.

After about twenty minutes of Darren teaching me how to cook Mr. Crepsley woke up and as soon as he finished eating he brought Darren and I outside to train, he told Darren to do his normal warm-up.

"Veronica, I would like you to run a mile for me." Mr. Crepsley said with a blank expression on his face.

"How do I know when it's been a mile?," I asked him.

"Do you see that tree out there?" He pointed, "Run to that tree and come back" He told me. I started running but it was much harder than I thought and when I came back I was gasping for air. Darren was already there and he didn't look like he ran at all.

"Did you even run?" I asked Darren, breathlessly.

"Of course I ran, it was only five miles." He said, like it was no big deal to run five miles.

"And you're not even a little tired?" I asked still gasping for air.

"I'm a half vampire, I'm stronger then most humans." He laughed.

"Time to start your real training. Veronica you will start with fifteen sets of ten push-ups and sit-ups." Mr Crepsley told me. I just looked at him with my eyebrow raised, he looked back with his eyebrow raised.

"Yes?" He asked, I just shook my head and started.

By the end of the work-out I was too tired to move, but I still had to go to the lesson on Vampire history till three in the morning. When the lesson ended I was so tired I fell asleep on Darren's shoulder.

Darren's P.O.V

After the lesson, Veronica fell asleep on my shoulder so I carried her back to our tent and laid her down in her hammock.

I laid awake in bed for about an hour just listening to Evra snore. I fell asleep at about four in the morning, when I awoke the first thing I noticed was that Evra and Veronica were gone. I walked around for a little while but couldn't find them anywhere. But then I heard footsteps behind me, I sniffed the air. 'Veronica and Sam', I thought to myself, 'There trying to sneak up on me eh? Well two... er three can play at that game'.

I walked around a corner and climbed on the room of a nearby trailer, Sam and Veronica walked past sur enough and I jumped down behind them. I put my hands on their shoulders.

"GOTCHA!" I yelled. Veronica jumped back, startled while Sam laughed.

"Why are you laughing?" I asked with my eyebrow raised, 'I already know' I thought.

"Because you forgot something." He snorted.

"Hmm, did I maybe forget that Evra is standing in in that tree over there?" I pointed at the tree.

"How did you know?" Asked Sam with his mouth wide open.

Evra jumped down from the tree and ran over. "Why did you tell him?" He asked Sam accusingly.

"I didn't, I swear he probably saw you when he jumped out at us." Explained Sam, Evra rolled his eyes.

"So what do you guys want to do now?" Veronica asked.

"Well I'm going to get some breakfast before I do anything." I said, finally acknowledging my rumbling tummy.

"Well you're going to have to cook you own and it's almost noon, we still have a lot of chores to do." Veronica said, wringing her hands.

"Ok. Sam, you help Evra with his chores and Veronica and I will do ours." We split up.

"Ok, so the first thing we have to do is find food for the little people." I told her. At first she wasn't very good at it, but after a while she got better, at the end she had three rabbits, a few rats and even a fox! I had two more animals than her, but it was good for her first try. We tossed the sacks of dead animals to the little people and went to clean out the wolfman's cage. We did the rest of our chores uneventfully and met up with Evra and Sam.

We walked around for a little while before Evra broke the silence.

"What now?" He asked, kicking a stone.

"Oh I know, come on follow me." Sam motioned for us to follow so we did. After a few minutes Veronica asked something that was on everyones mind.

"Where exactly are we going?" She asked.

"Well Veronica if you must know, there is this old railway station that's been abandoned for years. Theres lots of cool stuff there." He replied, with that we walked on for about fifteen more minutes until we got to the abandoned railway station.

"Alright Sam, since you're the expert, what are we going to do?" I asked, crossing my arms over my chest.

"We can explore some of the rail carts." Evra said before Sam could reply.

"Ok, who wants to check out what?" I asked. Veronica pointed at a cart away from the others with rude graffiti, anybody needed to see. Then I got curious. "Why that one?" I asked.

"I saw something moving." She replied.

"We'll go and check if there's any danger, you guys stay here." I told them. Evra and I walked over to the wall, I easily jumped it but Evra scrambled up.

"Hey, Im not missing out on this, help me up." Sam cried after us.

"One second, this one is empty, but there's this horrible smell of B.O." I said jumping down. We tried a few more, but all of them were empty, or full of glass and pieces of rusty metal. We finally came to the main building.

"I'll go first and make sure that we don't fall through the flo- Sam what are you doing?" I asked as he walked into the building with Veronica reluctantly behind him.

"I've been here loads of times, I haven't fallen through the floor, we'll be fine." He said, plopping a pickled onion in his mouth.

We went into the building, graffiti was all over the walls. We climbed the stairs, following Sam. When we got to the top he ran to the ledge. Support beams were going from one ledge to the other, he jumped on one and ran across, jumping from beam to beam.

"Sam you're going to fall, please get off there." Veronica asked him.

"Why, are you all too chicken to do it?" Sam said, taunting us. I walked out onto the beams too and started to jump from beam to beam like Sam did.

I felt a little dizzy, but I didn't think much of it, I'd started to get dizzy spells recently, but they only lasted for a few seconds. It was probably because I wouldn't drink human blood.

"Hey Darren, lets play mirrors. You have to copy what I do and when my turn is over I do Vice Versa." I nodded and he held up a hand, I did the same.

It started off alright, I could do mainly everything Sam did. Sam lifted up his leg and his arm and thats when I blacked out. If it wasn't for my Vampiric speed and strength I would've fallen, but the luck of the Vampires was behind me and I caught the beam I

was standing on not moments ago.

"DARREN!" Veronica screamed and Evra ran out towards me on the beam. It would be too late when he reached me, so I looked to Sam. Sam was jumping from beam to beam, trying to get to me.

When he did get here and started to pull me up, I heard Veronica scream Evra's name, I looked over and saw that he had slipped too, but he got luckier than me and had fallen on his stomach.

Sam had pulled my upper half on to the beam and I hauled myself up the rest of the way. As soon as I got up I ran to Evra who was standing up by now.

When I got off the beams Veronica threw herself in my arms and cried. I sat down and put her on my lap, trying to calm her down, she calmed down after a few minutes.

After a few moments silence Evra said something. "Lets head back to the cirque, it's almost dinner-time."

We were walking down the stairs, when I saw something move. I looked around but couldn't see anything, I decided to keep quiet. 'It was probably an aftereffect of the black-outs.' I thought.

We were on the trail back to the cirque when all of a sudden a man jumped out from some bushes.

"BOO!" He yelled, I jumped back and tripped over a rock, twisting my ankle in the process. I tried to stand, but fell again when I put pressure on my now swelling ankle.

"Oh sorry man, are you hurt? I didn't mean to hurt anybody, I was just trying to have some fun." The bearded man tried to explain.

"It's alright." I told him, waving it off. Evra helped me up and I leaned on him for support.

"What's your name?" Sam asked after a little while.

"The name's R.V." He said.

"That's a funny name. Does it stand for anything?" I asked.

"It stands for Reggie Veggie." He told us, scratching the back of his neck sheepishly.

"Reggie Veggie?" I asked with confusion.

"Yeah. I'm a Vegetarian you see and when I was young everybody used to tease me about it. They gave me the name until I convinced everyone to call me R.V and the name stuck." He shrugged. We all introduced ourselves to him and he nodded at each

one.

On the walk towards the Cirque we talked about what he did, he told us he and his pals protest about new roads being built and such. When we arrived he told us to come over to his camp and he would explain more, he gave us directions and left. A little while later Sam left too.

"Hows you ankle doing." Veronica asked.

"It should be fine by the time we go training." I told her and tossed her a sausage.

**There goes Chapter 3 I hope you liked it. please review it is always a big help. Thanks everyone and good bye.**


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